Introduction

Seems as if Panasonic got a hobby - the Panasonic Lumix G 45-150mm f/4-5.6 OIS is already their 5th(!) tele zoom lens introduced since they started the micro-four-thirds system a few years ago. Of course, each has its own specific agenda. This latest variant is about size. At just over 7cm long and merely 200g in weight it is basically in a class of its own here and keep in mind that the provided field-of-view is equivalent to a "90-300mm" full format cameras. As such it is usable for a variety of applications such as basic portrait or wildlife photography.

The Panasonic lens is made of a tightly assembled combination of plastic and metal parts based on a metal mount. Typical for its specifications, it extends during zooming towards the long end of the range. The front end does not rotate though. The zoom and focus ring operate smoothly. A barrel-shaped lens hood is also part of the package.

The AF performance of the lens is both fast and near silent and the AF accuracy was spot-on during our field sessions. Manual focusing works "by wire" so you actually drive the AF motor by turning the focus ring. This works quite fine actually.
The Panasonic lens also features a "Mega OIS" image stabilizer which provides a gain equivalent to 2-3ish f-stops.